Seattle mayor says city will be ready for the Sonics to return

If arena investor Chris Hansen’s deal to buy the Sacramento Kings is approved by the NBA, and the league also OKs the team’s relocation to Seattle, the new SuperSonics will be playing for two to three years at KeyArena while a new venue is constructed.

Seattle's new NBA team would play at KeyArena while a new venue is constructed. (Meryl Schenker/Seattle P-I archives)

But first, KeyArena needs to be updated so it can handle NBA games again.

What needs to be done? According to Hansen, KeyArena needs refurbished locker rooms, better high-priced suites, an upgraded electronic “backbone” for broadcast media, more TV camera positions, a refinished lower seating bowl and a number of other improvements.

“If the NBA approves it,” Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said Monday of the Kings deal, “I’m sure we will be able to figure out a way to make KeyArena ready for them.”

Any renovation work on KeyArena won’t begin until the NBA approves the Kings sale, which would happen at the league’s Board of Governors meeting in April. So the work at Seattle Center would need to be completed over about six months, before the start of the NBA preseason in October, City Councilman Tim Burgess said Monday.

Hansen, who must apply for relocation by the NBA’s March 1 deadline if Seattle is to have a team next season, has said his group would pay $12 million to $15 million for most of the improvements to KeyArena. The city of Seattle owns the old venue, and continues to be responsible for general upkeep.

“We don’t have very long,” Burgess said. “There’s a lot of work to do here, but the city is engaged now with Mr. Hansen on that and we’ll make progress over the next several months.”

In the meantime, the city is conducting a state-mandated environmental impact study on the proposed new arena. The new venue would likely be built on land owned by Hansen’s group two blocks south of Safeco Field in Sodo, though the environmental study requires at least one alternate location to be examined.

Arena proponents are also dealing with two lawsuits: one that portends the environmental study and its alternate-location requirement is toothless, and one that claims Seattle’s agreement with Hansen is not compliant with a relatively new law which requires the city to make a profit on any investments in pro-sports teams.

That law, which voters passed in 2006 as Initiative 91, has some specific language that Hansen’s arena deal could circumvent. But McGinn said that his office worked hard with Hansen to make sure the arena proposal was in compliance with I-91 as it is.

“I wouldn’t have put forward a deal if I didn’t think it was compliant with I-91,” McGinn said.

Hansen’s purchase of an NBA team was one of the final big steps before construction can start on the proposed new arena. But the pieces aren’t in motion yet: The NBA must still approve the acquisition and relocation, and the city of Seattle and King County must make their final arena decision after getting the results of the environmental study.

Under the arena-financing agreement among Hansen, Seattle and King County, the local governments would provide around $200 million in loans for construction. Hansen’s group would pay the money back mainly through taxes on arena operations, such as ticket sales, meaning that only people who use the new venue would help pay for it.

Seattle’s cemented plan gives it a big leg up on Sacramento, which is scrambling to come up with a counteroffer for the Kings before the NBA approves Hansen’s acquisition. Sacramento would need to incorporate funding for a new arena — an element that Seattle has already completed.

If everything goes to plan, the Kings should be relocated to Seattle in time for the start of the 2013-14 NBA season. Of course, the whole thing is not popular among NBA fans in Sacramento.

“If anybody understands how it feels to lose a team, it’s Seattle and Sonics fans,” McGinn said. “If it were up to the mayors, the NBA would be expanding.”

“It’s exciting to have the potential to have the Sonics back,” he added. “There were a lot of Sonics fans whose hearts were broken and really wanted to Sonics back.”